Sudden Swarm of 5 New Madrid Missouri Quakes – Eclipse Warmup?

I am not a scientist and I'm not saying that eclipses and earthquakes are related, but I do find it interesting that a mini-swarm of 5 quakes has just hit the New Madrid, Missouri area just days before Monday's historic total solar eclipse that will cross that region.

The USGS has confirmed there are at least 5 New Madrid, Missouri quakes as of this writing. 2 happened early Friday morning and there may be more now, but 5 is the total as of this writing.

None of these quakes were any larger than 2.5 with most too minor to be felt.

Could an eclipse cause a major earthquake in Missouri or anywhere else?

Tremblor tried to answer this question 7 years ago during the last total solar eclipse that crossed Missouri in August of 2017. The short answer is there is no science to corroborate the idea that an eclipse could trigger a fault zone like New Madrid into a major earthquake event. Is it possible the New Madrid could unleash a major quake? Sure, but it's the same 10% chance in our lifetime that the the USGS has mentioned previously and not tied to total solar eclipse day on Monday, April 8.

Unrelated (probably), but note that New Jersey had a major 4.8 quake Friday morning, too.

Still, it's an interesting and curious coincidence that the New Madrid Fault which has been relatively quiet in 2024 would suddenly spit out nearly a half dozen quakes. We'll see what Monday holds when the big event happens in Missouri and hopefully it's just a total solar eclipse and not a major earthquake that makes the day memorable.